


Nothing But the Open Road From the Darlington 500

by goodgirl21



Series: When We Were Young Verse [2]
Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence, Episode Tag: s02e02 Darlington 500, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 02:24:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14843826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodgirl21/pseuds/goodgirl21
Summary: Lucy finds out a little bit more about Wyatt's past and how he got into bootlegging before coming to live with his Grandpa Sherwin.





	Nothing But the Open Road From the Darlington 500

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone who are fans of WWWY! I know I'm supposed to be working on the next chapter, but since this episode aired, this thought had been in my mind of how much Lucy really knew of Wyatt's father and it just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. So I did. 
> 
> But for those of you who don't know WWWY or what's it's about and still want to read this story, you can! All you have to know is that Lucy and Wyatt were high school sweethearts (idea came up before 2x04) and that they have a history together!
> 
> And as always I just want to apologize in advance if Lucy and/or Wyatt seem out of character, I just want to establish that they have a history that will make them act a little differently than they do in the show.

 

Lucy had only truly met Wyatt’s dad the one time in her entire time she had been dating him. It was at Grandpa Sherwin’s funeral. She didn’t remember much, but she did remember how Wyatt barely let her say hello and introduce herself to the man before he pulled her away and practically dragged her to the other side of the room. He never gave her a reason as to why and at the time, she didn’t ask because she thought Wyatt had been through enough already with his Grandpa Sherwin and she had forgotten about it up till now.

But hearing what Wyatt’s father had done to him when he had only been a kid as she continued to bandage Rufus’ arm, the history professor could understand why Wyatt had all but dragged her away from the man.

“Al-eight then. I’ll help you get back into the race. Least I can do afta’ you helped me with my car.” Wendell Scott conceded after _Old Rusty’s_ engine revved.

“You will?” Lucy asked and the racecar driver nodded his head.

“But wait…they’ll be looking for us. How will we get in?” Lucy thought out loud.  Wyatt nodded and looked back at Wendell.

“Well that’s an easy fix, Rufus will ride up front with me and you two,” he gestured to Lucy and Wyatt, “are getting in a different way.”

Wyatt looked back at her, shrugging. She had just started incline her head to consent…Until the racecar driver walked around the car and dropped open the trunk door. Lucy stopped nodding abruptly.

_Were they going in there?_ Wyatt must’ve seen her wide eyes opened with fear because he turned his head to follow her gaze.

“Wendell, thank you. But we’ll have to find a different way because she’s claustrophobic and that space is way too small-”

“I-I’ll do it.” Lucy had to swallow a few times to get the words out, but she finally did it. She couldn’t let herself be the reason the mission failed, not with Rittenhouse here destroying history.

“Lucy,” Wyatt turned to face her, “are you sure?”

Nodding the historian said, “We need to get back in that race and I don’t see another way in. We need to do this Wyatt. I’ll…be okay.”

Just thinking of being in there was starting to give her a panic attack. _But she needed to do this. History could already be changing and they were sitting here discussing not sneaking into the race because of her phobia?_ Lucy couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let herself be the reason history was destroyed.

“Well since we got that settled, can we get a move on? The race’ll be startin’ soon.” Wendell opened the trunk, dropping the decoy door so Wyatt and Lucy could get in. Lucy inched forward slowly, but soon she was standing at the trunk of the car. She was about to slide in when Wyatt stopped her.

“Wait,” he said before he took off his jacket and laid it down inside the small space. Then the soldier slid in himself but didn’t lie on the jacket. Instead, he took the spot right beside it. Heat rose to her cheeks as she slid in on top of the fabric. It wasn’t much comfort against the trunk’s metal body, but Lucy appreciated the gesture.

**~~~**

Lucy tried to focus on anything, but the walls closing in. It was proving to be difficult though. Looking over at Wyatt, she tried to focus on her breathing and not the car moving over bumps and rumbling down the road.

“You two okay back there?” She heard Wendell’s faint voice.

  “Yeah, we’re good,” Wyatt hollered back then he glanced back at her and continued in a quieter voice, “We’re good right?”

She knew what he was asking. _Are you okay? Do we need to stop? There’s still time to back out and find a different way in._

“So far, so good!” She yelled.  Then she went back to focusing on her breathing. 

“I’m sorry I’m so…” She started when she turned and saw him smirking at her. She use to love that smirk. She still did, if she was being honest.

“Wildly claustrophobic?” Wyatt supplied and for a moment Lucy felt the closing walls ease and annoyance made way into her mind.

“Not helping-” But it was. Even if it wasn’t-

“-mmmfph,” She tried to muffle her scream and brace her hands over her face as they hit a particularly nasty bump and they both flew upward.

“Here,” the soldier shifted a little closer, “why don’t you just-hold on to me.”

His question because a sentence as he wrapped his own arms around her and then Lucy found her face pressed into the familiar warmth of his neck that she hadn’t felt since sophomore year of college. Not sure what to do, she just laid there in silence working up the courage to ask him something that she had trouble approaching.

“I can hear you thinking from over here.” Wyatt’s voice appeared in her ear.

“Your dad,” the historian started but paused when she felt him stiffen.

“Was all that stuff you said true? It’s just you always told me that up until you moved in with your grandpa, you had a  pretty bad childhood. But you never went into much detail as you did with Wendell back there.” She didn’t get much of response, except she felt his body move under her as he shrugged.

“Is that why you practically dragged me away from him when you saw me talking to him at your grandpa Sherwin’s funeral?” Was it weird that, after almost ten years, it still felt natural to be in the safety of his arms?

“Well yeah. He was the reason I was placed into Grandpa’s custody in the first place and Grandpa had just died. You were the last good thing I had in the world at the time. I wasn’t going to let him taint our relationship too. He had already done enough damage to my childhood.”  Wyatt explained to her in a quiet voice, even though Rufus and Wendell Scott probably wouldn’t be able to hear them over the rumbling engine.

“How do you do that? Call him a bastard one minute then laugh about it the next.” Lucy’s reply was equally as quiet.

“Probably because I drove his car into a lake,” He laughed the vibrations rumbling from his body to hers, “Kinda just let it go after that.”  

“You’re lucky you never admired him. Remember in high school? I thought my mother was Super Woman. Come to find out she’s just terrible,” Wyatt sighed at her words.

“Of course I admired him. He was my dad. You knew me in high school to Professor. You remember how screwed up I was because of what he did. For years I thought every bad thing he did was somehow my fault.”

 Lucy didn’t know what to say to that. But luckily she didn’t have to.

“But maybe it’s for the best that we know,” Wyatt said.

 “What do you mean?”

“Well, now we know. Now we can move on with nothing but the open in front of us.” Was it just her or did his talk of the open road sound an awfully lot like his talk of possibilities six weeks ago? 

**~~~**

She laughed as Wyatt crashed on top of her. They had just narrowly snuck back into the race with only one metaphorical bump in the road as Wendell’s car was stopped and the trunk was searched.  In case the decoy trunk didn’t hold up, Wyatt had been moving to shield her body with his own in the event of an attack. So that’s why he was still on top of her when the car lurched and hit an actual bump causing Wyatt’s body to move upward.

“You alright? I wasn’t expecting that.” Wyatt was laughing too. But as quickly as the laughter came, it went as Lucy stared into his eyes, and she could feel the same tension set in from a few days ago as the historian reached up to trace his jaw.

He had that same look in his eyes too, the one from a few days ago. But Lucy’s memory of that look went farther back than just a few days; it was the same look he got when he was about to-

His lips met hers again for the first time since 1934 when they were pretending for Bonnie and Clyde.

_Only this time it was real._ They didn’t have an audience.

Or so she thought they didn’t have an audience. 

Within minutes of feeling her soldier’s lips against hers, the door to the trunk opened, the decoy dropped and there stood Rufus and Wendell looking at them in broad daylight.

“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” Wendell told them sheepishly while Rufus just smirked at them, mouthing one word.

_Busted._


End file.
